[dabernathy89]

This service doesn't give podcast hosts a way to retrieve their own material. It doesn't inform them that they'll be completely locked into Apple's service. If creators were aware of this upfront, then sure, I'd say "just don't use it" too.

[moogleii]

I'm a bit out of the loop but wouldn't hosts have the original source material that they uploaded? Similar to how users have the source images/videos to whatever they upload to TikTok and Instagram? I suspect neither offer an export either.

Additionally, the author complains that an Apple Podcast user has to go through the app (and all its restrictions), but again, not that different from Instagram posts. As a user, you must go through Instagram to see photos. These users aren't there just for generic hosting, but also for the network effects. For those that want generic hosting, there are other more appropriate services, like google photos or maybe Flickr (or self hosting).

I'm not arguing the Podcasts/Instagram model is better, just that there is fairly old precedent, so the purported shock value seems pretty low.

[timerol]

It's perfectly reasonable for a user to pay a big company for hosting, and then delete their local copies, since they paid for hosting. And then assume that, because their data is publicly available, that they'll be able to download that information.

Getting your photos off of Instagram is easy, according to the top 10 search results for "Instagram photo downloader". But even then, the distinction that you're not paying Instagram for hosting is notable.

[greedo]

All the podcasters I know of DON'T delete their master versions, because podcast hosts routinely have issues where they have to re-upload files.

[duxup]

> and then delete their local copies

I don’t understand this practice. Why would you delete your own local content you probably took time to create and care about….?

This strikes me as just a novice computer user type thing.

[pwinnski]

Or your computer crashed and you're having to rebuild from a failed backup. Or you're traveling away from your backups and need access. Or you upload from one device and usually download to your archive on another device. There are more scenarios in heaven and earth than I could possibly list here.

[duxup]

None of that was described by the author. I have trouble believing they think of it as a backup service…

If they do I think it is just another misunderstanding on the author’s part.

[pwinnski]

That you can't think of a single scenario in which people might want to rely on the previously-uploaded copies of a large binary files is one thing. That you dismiss the several I came up with off the top of my head is another.

[bastawhiz]

Author here.

> wouldn't hosts have the original source material that they uploaded

As far as I'm aware, Apple never resurfaces the audio after it's uploaded, even in your dashboard. Even if they did, making someone manually download and reupload every asset for potentially hundreds of episodes is sadistic. Moreover, you physically can't leave, because your listeners won't follow you to your new hosting service.

> These users aren't there just for generic hosting, but also for the network effects.

The network effects are limited to an app with only 40% of the market. Outside the US, that number is even smaller.

> just that there is fairly old precedent

Every podcast hosting service ever has allowed you to leave their service.

[dkonofalski]

>Moreover, you physically can't leave, because your listeners won't follow you to your new hosting service.

This is patently not true. I've had to do this after a podcast host had an outage and our followers moved over because we posted on social that there was a new feed. Joe Rogan's followers moved to Spotify just fine after he removed all other traces of his show.

It's not great but you're literally getting what you pay for.

[bastawhiz]

As I said, this literally doesn't apply to Apple's own service, as they don't use RSS feeds. It works with every other hosting service.

[dkonofalski]

They don't need to. We didn't either since the server hosting the RSS feed was down. You just tell your subscribers to move on whatever platforms you're advertising on.

[ryanbrunner]

I'm assuming it wasn't anywhere close to 100% though, which a simple 301 redirect would give you.

Every podcast host I'm aware of would be happy to do that for you.

[dkonofalski]

That wasn't possible as the host was completely down. I'm not sure if it was 100% but we had more followers on the new platform than the old one within the first month so most of them must have followed.

[howinteresting]

This is all Apple bringing their usual dirty tactics into an ecosystem that has historically been open. Everything Apple does is designed to keep you buying Apple products and services forever.

[mrkstu]

Except that "pod"casts have always been Apple's ecosystem. They've introduced a new product that is less open, but haven't actually stopped supporting the completely open options that have always existed.

[howinteresting]

What? Something historically being named after an Apple product doesn't make it Apple's ecosystem.

I've used Pocket Casts on Android for many years, and before that on iOS. I don't even know what the Apple podcast app looks like -- I carefully chose a podcast player that wouldn't lock me into its ecosystem. Podcasts have always been an open ecosystem, one that I greatly appreciate.

[ryanbrunner]

In addition to the audio, there's also show specific metadata like episode names, summaries, and show notes, which can get pretty comprehensive. It would maybe be a smart idea to have a copy of those outside of your hosting provider, but that's not common.

The bigger thing though is less about the data and more about your listeners. If you move to another podcast host, it's obviously important that your existing listeners move with you, and every public podcast host I'm aware of will happily redirect your feeds (as mentioned in the article)

With Apple you have to ask people to move, and asking people to take an action is necessarily going to involve a lot of churn and confusion.

[crazygringo]

Why would there be any expectation that a podcast distribution service should also serve as a private file archive? And why would podcast hosts even need to retrieve their own material?

If there are podcast hosts who don't hold onto their original audio files they had before uploading them, then what are they thinking? That's like sending a project to a client and then deleting your own copy of it.

I understand that the author tries to provide an "import from Apple Podcasts" service for convenience, but that's merely a convenience. It really shouldn't be too hard for a podcaster to just re-upload their original audio files and descriptions to a new service. Nobody's "locked in" to anything here as far as I can tell.

[bastawhiz]

> It really shouldn't be too hard for a podcaster to just re-upload their original audio files and descriptions to a new service. Nobody's "locked in" to anything here as far as I can tell.

If you reupload your audio to a new hosting service, there's no way to have your listeners move to the new service. The listeners need to physically unsubscribe and resubscribe with a new feed. This is a feature of _every single podcast hosting service_ with the exception of Apple.

If I bought a bunch of apps on my Samsung phone, and then I wanted to switch to an LG phone, but I couldn't transfer my apps or data—despite the phone running the same OS—that's lock-in. If "having to start over if you want to leave" isn't lock-in, I'm not sure what is. It's an artificial limitation that Apple deliberately put in place and didn't make clear to their customers.

[CharlesW]

> If you reupload your audio to a new hosting service, there's no way to have your listeners move to the new service.

That's incorrect.

https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3965-how-to-change-host...

[bastawhiz]

This doesn't apply to Apple's own hosting, as there is no RSS feed.

[freedomben]

> I understand that the author tries to provide an "import from Apple Podcasts" service for convenience, but that's merely a convenience.

When you run a podcast with thousands or tens of thousands of episodes, each with titles, descriptions, tags, and all other sorts of metadata on top of the mp3, it's not "merely a convenience."

[crazygringo]

There are no podcasts with tens of thousands of episodes.

And there are very few with thousands. And if you're at that level of professionalism and popularity then you know what you're doing and this article doesn't apply.

[lmm]

> Why would there be any expectation that a podcast distribution service should also serve as a private file archive? And why would podcast hosts even need to retrieve their own material?

If it's a podcast distribution service it should be distributing the rss and mp3s. That's what "podcast" means!

[dabernathy89]

What a weird attitude. "Why would you ever expect [Business X] to offer [Feature Y] that you, as a potential customer, would like to see?"

edit: especially since they are an outlier in the podcast hosting space in this regard!